Henri Moissan

Ferdinand Frederick Henri Moissan was a French chemist who won the 1906 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in isolating fluorine from its compounds. Moissan was one of the original members of the International Atomic Weights Committee.

Moissan was born in Paris onSeptember 1852, the son of a minor officer of the eastern railway company, Francis Ferdinand Moissan, and a seamstress, Josphine Amraldine . In 1864 they moved to Meaux, where he attended the local school. In 1870 he left the school without the grade universitaire necessary to attend the university. He began working for a chemist in Paris, where he was able to save a person poisoned with arsenic. He decided to study chemistry and began first at the laboratory of Edmond Frmy and later at that of Pierre Paul Dehrain. Dehrain persuaded him to pursue an academic career. He passed the baccalaurat, which was necessary to study at university, in 1874 after an earlier failed attempt. During his time in Paris he became a friend of the chemist Alexandre Lon tard and the botanist Vasque.

Source: Wikipedia